Chapter Summaries

Cui Zhi investigated Shen Zhongli’s grain-seed loan and became suspicious of its extreme interest rate, while Cui Mi insisted the seeds would yield enough to make the deal profitable. Shen Tang persuaded most of the Martial Gall Warriors to stay with her, leaving them eager to find her spirit wine.

• Cui Zhi learned that Shen Zhongli had borrowed grain seeds from a Qi Country merchant at five fen and two li interest and ordered an investigation into the merchant’s ties to Kang Country.
• Cui Mi told the worried meat bun that the seeds could yield at least five times as much per mu, so even the high interest would not cause a loss.
• Shen Tang’s diluted spirit wine and persuasive hospitality helped persuade more than seventy percent of the Martial Gall Warriors to remain with her.
• The warriors suggested varying their work projects, and Shen Tang offered to hire them long-term at high salaries.
• Several warriors suspected Shen Tang had hidden more spirit wine in her territory and planned to stay until they found it.

Shen Tang used wages, spirit wine, and cultivation guidance to keep hundreds of wandering knights working while secretly training them as troops. After the Cui family's meat bun recognized her ambitions, Liao Jia arrived under the identity Liao Qian to discuss business with her.

• Cui Mi paid the wandering knights mostly in goods and vouchers, then announced that Shen Tang would provide selected Outstanding Worthies with cultivation guidance.
• Five selected knights learned a military formation Word Spirit from Shen Tang and returned from secluded cultivation visibly excited.
• The Cui family's meat bun realized Shen Tang had used the knights' labor and military techniques to expand farmland and build a future fighting force.
• Shen Tang questioned the meat bun about his switch from the Cui family, and he explained that his sister had bought their freedom so they could choose their own paths.
• Liao Jia arrived using the genuine identity Liao Qian, and Shen Tang took him to the County Office to discuss business.

Shen Tang learned why Liao Jia was using the identity Liao Zun Guang: he was searching for the missing children of the woman who had once cared for him. After Liao Jia showed Shen Tang the half of their ancestral jade pendant, she questioned whether it was the right one.

• Liao Jia told Shen Tang that the identity belonged to an old acquaintance’s missing son, and explained how the acquaintance’s former maid, Sister Tao, had recognized him.
• Liao Jia recalled that Sister Tao had told him the woman’s two children might have survived the Palace Coup and had asked him to find out what became of them.
• Liao Jia agreed to search for the children using clues including birthmarks and half of an ancestral jade pendant, but found no leads before meeting Shen Tang.
• Liao Jia showed Shen Tang the pendant, and Shen Tang asked whether it was really the one he was seeking.

Liao Jia followed the Jade Pendant to Liao Qian, the child of his old acquaintance, and discovered that Liao Qian’s elder sister was the person he had meant to find. Liao Qian rejected Liao Jia’s attempt to take his sister away and argued that she should not be forced to pursue their mother’s ambitions.

• Shen Tang told Liao Jia that she had seen the matching Jade Pendant on Hou Bai, and Cui Mi explained that he had found the other half in a stream.
• Cui Mi said the stream had only recently been cleared and that the Martial Gall Warriors might have bathed there, so Liao Jia went to search them for the birthmark he remembered.
• Liao Jia spotted Meat Bun’s birthmark, but Meat Bun recognized him as the man who had stolen his things and rallied the other warriors to attack him.
• Liao Jia revealed that Meat Bun was Liao Qian, his nephew, and showed him the two halves of the Jade Pendant as proof of their connection.
• Liao Jia said he would take Liao Qian’s elder sister with him and gave him their mother’s letter, which described her ambition to enter public service.
• Liao Qian refused to treat his sister as a substitute for their mother, saying she should choose her own path rather than be made to pursue that ambition.

Liao Jia forced Liao Qian to summon his elder sister, then left him a portrait and letter about their mother before disappearing. Meanwhile, Shen Tang learned the great clans were reeling from stolen secrets and rejected a neighboring state's insulting tribute, while Cui Zhi discovered that fighting had already begun.

• Liao Jia threatened Liao Qian into agreeing to summon his elder sister, and later described their mother and promised to paint her portrait.
• Liao Jia vanished after three days, leaving Liao Qian a portrait and letter that prompted him to ask Shen Tang where Liao Jia had gone.
• Cui Mi told Liao Qian that the great clans had lost crucial secrets and suspected rival clans or the Sovereign, while Shen Tang's officials debated whether to make war on a state that had sent her male attendants as tribute.
• Shen Tang demanded that the neighboring state pay for its deworming pills before she decided whether to fight it.
• Cui Zhi read a report that Envoy Wan had arrived in Zhen and that fighting had already started, then wondered whether Qi Yuanliang was responsible.

Shen Tang’s court defended Li Wan after she abducted a prospective imperial son-in-law, while Qin Li uncovered that Kang’s officials had secretly encouraged the crisis. Kang prepared for possible war and public rumors turned the incident into an enemy plot; Li Wan’s supposed elopement was revealed to be a ruse involving mind control.

• Qin Li accused Qi Shan of directing Li Wan, while Qi Shan denied it and suspected other officials had secretly incited her.
• An old official proposed intimidating the opposing state and then apologizing, but Shen Tang declared that only Kang could punish its envoy and threatened retaliation if Li Wan died.
• Shen Tang demanded that the opposing state surrender the abducted man, arguing that he might have willingly gone with Li Wan.
• Zhao Feng tried to evade Qin Li’s questions by claiming he was away arranging a match for Da Wei, but Qin Li cornered him and forced him to confess that several officials had helped stir up the affair.
• Kang prepared troops and provisions as rumors spread among the common people that the neighboring state had tried to seduce Shen Tang and cheat Kang over its worm-medicine debt.
• Li Wan knocked a man off balance with her sword and revealed that their elopement was fake, though he had genuinely fled with her after she briefly controlled his mind.

Li Wan abducted the Prospective Imperial Son-in-Law Captain after using her Word Spirit to cloud his memories and make it seem he had eloped with her. As they reached the border, Zhao Wei arrived and tried to recruit Li Wan into the army.

• The Prospective Imperial Son-in-Law Captain recalled how Li Wan provoked Zhen Country’s officials, harassed him, and gradually drew him into her scheme.
• Li Wan used her Word Spirit to make the Prospective Imperial Son-in-Law Captain believe he had chosen to elope with her, then took him toward the border while evading pursuers.
• The Prospective Imperial Son-in-Law Captain woke in a cave, found Li Wan sharpening a sword, and protested that they had been husband and wife for a night.
• A newcomer laughed outside the cave, and Li Wan recognized the woman as one of her own and lowered her sword.
• Zhao Wei entered and asked Li Wan to join the army, saying she wanted someone like her in a post connected to the Five Virtues of the General.

Li Wan reunited with Zhao Wei, who brought her and the captured Prospective Imperial Son-in-Law Captain back to camp, where Li Wan also encountered an old academy classmate serving as a military doctor. Their reunion led to stories of their school days and Miao Ximin, before General Qian Yong arrived to praise Li Wan for her service.

• Li Wan declined Zhao Wei's offer of help, and Zhao Wei agreed to take her and the captive to a safer place.
• Zhao Wei carried the Prospective Imperial Son-in-Law Captain back to camp while Li Wan rode with her and discussed academy life.
• Li Wan recognized a military doctor as an old classmate, and the two reunited over a meal arranged by Zhao Wei.
• Li Wan and her classmate reminisced about academy brawls and discussed Miao Ximin's departure from school and return as Duke Luan Yi's disciple.
• Qian Yong arrived and thanked Li Wan for her great service.

Li Wan’s old classmates discussed the coming campaign against Zhen Country, while Qian Yong boasted that he would command it. At a special Court Session, Shen Tang reprimanded officials for encouraging Li Wan’s actions by barring them from the campaign, then approved promising newcomers to accompany the army; Qian Yong ended the chapter confident of victory and insulting Zhen Country.

• Qian Yong praised Li Wan’s boldness, and Zhao Wei warned that others were competing for the credit to conquer Zhen Country.
• Qian Yong revealed that Shen Tang had summoned selected officials to a special Court Session and suggested that Zhao Wei’s father would be forbidden from fighting.
• Shen Tang kept the officials waiting through repeated tea refills, then questioned them about the campaign and made them realize she was angry that they had encouraged Li Wan.
• Shen Tang barred the officials from fighting in the Zhen Country campaign but approved several promising people they recommended, including a former cook who would accompany the army to gain experience.
• Qian Yong celebrated his expected appointment as commander-in-chief, while Zhao Wei cautioned him not to underestimate Zhen Country.
• A prospective imperial son-in-law captain broke through Qian Yong’s Silence and Voice-Seizing technique, and Qian Yong mocked him by comparing him to a barking dog.

Shen Tang appointed Qian Yong commander and granted his request to destroy Zhen Country in three days, backing him with powerful reinforcements. Qin Li questioned the scale of the campaign, while Li Wan realized the assembled army numbered at least thirty thousand.

• Shen Tang told Qi Shan that Qian Yong would command the campaign against Zhen Country and would bear the blame if he failed.
• Qi Shan explained to Qin Li that Kang Country needed to strike quickly to frighten the neighboring states, and revealed that Qian Yong had asked to conquer Zhen Country in three days to settle an old grudge against its Sovereign.
• Qi Shan said Shen Tang had assigned Gongxi Chou and Yun Yuanmou to support Qian Yong, along with a large force, leaving Qin Li astonished by the preparations.
• Li Wan joined the campaign as a guide and, judging by the army's supply needs, realized that at least thirty thousand troops had been assembled to fight Zhen Country.

Qian Yong prepared a three-day campaign against Zhen Country, relying on powerful allies Yun Ce and Gongxi Chou, and launched the army after sacrificing the Prospective Imperial Son-in-Law Captain. Zhen Country’s ministers scrambled to respond, but three border towns had fallen within two hours, leaving the Sovereign demanding to know what happened to the National Border Barrier.

• Li Wan questioned Qian Yong’s decision to bring thirty thousand troops, and he explained that a swift three-day campaign would cost less than a month-long war.
• Yun Ce and Gongxi Chou arrived, and Qian Yong arranged for the army to march the next morning despite Gongxi Chou’s sleepiness in the cold.
• The soldiers took the Prospective Imperial Son-in-Law Captain to the altar as the sacrifice, and Qian Yong led the army toward Zhen Country.
• The Sovereign of Zhen Country convened his ministers, rejected peace talks, and ordered troops to reinforce the border while allies were asked for help.
• A second report revealed that three border towns had fallen within two hours, and the Sovereign demanded to know what had happened to the National Border Barrier.

Kang Country’s forces swiftly conquered Zhen Country, while its Sovereign’s accusations and cruelty drove his supporters and family away. Qian Yong captured the fleeing Sovereign at the capital, leaving him in Kang Country’s hands.

• Zhen Country’s Sovereign accused the general of betraying him, and the general’s trusted aide attacked him before guards killed the aide.
• As Kang Country’s army advanced, officials and members of the royal household fled, and the Sovereign killed palace maids and his wife while threatening his daughter.
• The Zhen Country general defected and helped Kang Country’s army, led by Qian Yong, march directly toward the capital.
• Qian Yong’s forces broke through the capital’s gates, and Zhen Country’s Sovereign tried to escape by jumping from a high place.
• Qian Yong rescued and captured the Sovereign, then mocked him as a conquered ruler.

Qian Yong captured Sovereign Zhen and ordered the city gates sealed as his forces secured the newly conquered city. Meanwhile, Gongxi Chou and Jimò Qiu shared a meal and discussed the upcoming New Year sacrificial dance, while the commoners remained wary of the occupying soldiers.

• Qian Yong taunted Sovereign Zhen, offered to spare him as a commoner, then had him bound alive for the greater military merit.
• Qian Yong ordered the city gates sealed and warned his soldiers to follow military discipline while they searched for fleeing wealthy residents.
• The newly conquered city’s commoners hid in their homes and cellars, fearing the soldiers would loot or slaughter them.
• Gongxi Chou searched for food, found Jimò Qiu, and invited his elder brother to cook with him at a deserted restaurant.
• Jimò Qiu explained that he was practicing the New Year sacrificial dance and gave Gongxi Chou a spicy meal to help expel Death Qi from his Martial Gall Totem.
• Jimò Qiu paid for the food before leaving, while hungry soldiers elsewhere dragged cooks out to prepare meals.

After Kang Country took Zhen Country's capital, its soldiers ate and paid at local businesses while protecting shopkeepers from extortionists. Qian Yong discovered that the Zhen Country Sovereign had attacked his own daughter, the former Princess, and saw her survival as a way to win over Zhen Country's remaining people.

• Kang Country soldiers devoured a meal at an eatery, paid with a jumble of old coins, and left the bewildered owners unharmed.
• Soldiers at other shops drove off local hooligans who tried to extort protection fees, and the shopkeepers celebrated their help.
• Qian Yong confronted the Zhen Country Sovereign after learning he had killed palace consorts, and the Sovereign defended his actions as a way to spare them humiliation.
• Qian Yong's aide reported that the former Princess had survived the Sovereign's sword strike, though both her forearms had been severed.
• Qian Yong decided the former Princess could help Kang Country appease Zhen Country's former officials and surviving subjects.

Qian Yong provoked the former Princess of Zhen Country into realizing that her father might still be alive and offered to restore her arms if she helped him take revenge. Shen Tang accepted the report of the Sovereign’s supposed sudden illness and turned to the question of whether neighboring countries would send troops to restore Zhen Country.

• Qian Yong took the Sovereign of Zhen Country to see his injured daughter and told her that her father had jumped from the city wall.
• The former Princess learned that the Sovereign might have survived and became furious that he had killed others but spared himself.
• Qian Yong offered the former Princess a peaceful life and restored arms if she followed his plan against her father.
• Qian Yong warned his adjutant not to kill the Sovereign without orders, then admitted he wanted revenge and wanted to see how much influence he had with Shen Youli.
• Shen Tang received Qian Yong’s victory report and spoils, accepted the Sovereign’s supposed sudden illness as his explanation, and told Gu Chi to arrange the funeral.
• Shen Tang considered whether neighboring countries that had received Zhen Country’s pleas for aid would send troops to restore it.

After Kang Country conquered Zhen Country in three days, its neighbors debated forming an alliance while Shen Tang chose to accept their gifts and avoid further conquests for now. Qi Shan brought Shen Tang a beautiful high-value prisoner from the Central Branch of the Assembly of Gods, whose past encounter with Qi Shan involved him seeing the man bathing.

• Zhen Country’s neighbors agreed to send troops to help, but learned that Zhen Country had fallen before their reinforcements could leave.
• The neighboring rulers and ministers feared Kang Country and discussed placating it while secretly seeking allies among the Central Continent’s great powers.
• Shen Tang accepted the gifts sent by the small countries and decided not to press her advantage, intending to preserve them as a buffer while she focused on the Southwest.
• Shen Tang questioned Qi Shan about the unfamiliar prisoner, and Qi Shan explained that he had once seen the man bathing in the wild.

Shen Tang learned how Qi Shan had met a beautiful man who confessed his love while Qi Shan was disguised as a woman. Qi Shan explained that the man was now a valuable Zhen Country prisoner whose secret Word Spirits made him a potential threat, and they prepared to decide whether to recruit him.

• Shen Tang questioned Qi Shan about accidentally seeing the prisoner naked, and Qi Shan recounted their first encounters while he was recovering in the mountains.
• Qi Shan befriended the man, joined him at a Nuo Dance ritual, and received a drunken confession of love before revealing his true identity as a man.
• The man attacked Qi Shan after learning the truth, chased him for a day and a night, and later met and drank with him again.
• Qi Shan told Shen Tang that the man was among Zhen Country's prisoners, was hired at great expense, and could use secret Word Spirits to counter Martial Gall Warriors.
• Qi Shan warned Shen Tang not to mention the man's physical condition or Qi Shan himself when they considered recruiting him.

Shen Tang met the prisoner Tan Ting, whose old grudge with Qi Shan began with his demand that Qi Shan live as a woman. Tan Ting agreed to serve Shen Tang because she was a woman, then revealed his unusual body and his belief that women could possess the Mandate of Heaven; Shen Tang left him with reassurance rather than judgment.

• Shen Tang met Tan Ting and learned that he wanted Qi Shan to castrate himself or transform into a woman before they could serve together.
• Qi Shan recalled how Tan Ting had once made the same demand, how they fell out, and how he later tried to recruit him for Shen Tang’s cause.
• Shen Tang refused Tan Ting’s demand, and Tan Ting admitted he had only raised it to tease Qi Shan before explaining that he would serve Shen Tang because she was a woman.
• Tan Ting explained that he was born with both male and female characteristics and had long struggled with others defining his gender for him.
• Tan Ting said he believed the world’s rule that only men could cultivate was a lie and that a woman could bear the Mandate of Heaven.
• Shen Tang told Tan Ting that being different did not make him a monster and urged him not to blame himself for his body.

Shen Tang helped Tan Ting see that his struggle over his body came from rejecting part of himself, and he decided to learn self-acceptance by becoming narcissistic. Tan Ting then moved in with Qi Shan, whose fears and complaints resurfaced, while Shen Tang began teaching Tan Ting to prioritize his own comfort.

• Shen Tang told Tan Ting that he was trapping himself by resisting his own nature, and urged him to accept himself as complete.
• Tan Ting felt his long-held distress ease, thanked Shen Tang, and said he would go into seclusion to learn how to be narcissistic.
• Tan Ting sought lodging with Qi Shan, insisting he was the most suitable host, and Qi Shan protested that Tan Ting could stay elsewhere.
• Tan Ting accused Qi Shan of having changed, then attacked him after learning he still pursued lovers, leaving Qi Shan driven from his temporary residence.
• Tan Ting asked Shen Tang how to practice narcissism, and she taught him to admire himself and choose what made him comfortable.

Shen Tang planned a place for Tan Ting in Kang Country’s government and arranged for him to stay at Qi Shan’s home. As Tan Ting and Qin Li began getting acquainted in Qi Shan’s study, Qi Shan returned to find the two of them deep in conversation.

• Shen Tang asked Qi Shan where Tan Ting should serve, and Qi Shan recommended the Ministry of Rites because Tan Ting hated war and cultivated the Way of Noncontention.
• Shen Tang returned to Fengluo with her troops before the new year and arranged for Tan Ting to stay at Qi Shan’s residence.
• Shen Tang told Qin Li she intended to appoint Tan Ting to the Ministry of Rites, and Qin Li said Qi Shan had mentioned Tan Mengyuan years earlier.
• Qin Li visited Qi Shan’s study and met Tan Ting, who asked him about his perfected Way of the Scholar.
• Qi Shan returned home and found Qin Li and Tan Ting discussing the Way and Word Spirits in his study.